Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/148754
much achieve in their start-up phase to be deemed suitable for their use in the facility. • Level Four – Verifying that all individual components and systems are operational is the primary focus in Level 4 testing. All equipment is powered up and tested to ensure that it is fully functional within the individual parameters established for the specific sub-system. This phase is analogous to ensuring that all the lights and power outlets work in your new house. Level 4 is where most "phased modular builds" stop. A phased build is one a data center facility is built in multiple steps, with the outer shell constructed first and then individual data halls or pre-fabricated data center modules built/added one-by-one over time as the company's IT needs evolve. This approach is increasingly popular because of the lower construction and operations costs of adding data center space as you go rather than building a large amount of space all at once and letting most of it go unused for years. The desire to better manage scarce capital and lower expenses has led more companies to pursue this kind of phased build strategy. • When maintenance is being performed on one unit can the others handle the load? • How long is a run through on N-1 of cooling at full load? If integration testing is not performed, then how the site will respond to an outage is unknown until it happens in a live environment, or simply, when it is too late. This is why a "factory commissioned" or "phased build" commissioned data center is fool's gold. Just like a sprinter's risk of a pulled muscle, the possibility for outages increases with the degree of load (effort in the case of our sprinter), and testing at anything less then full load is incapable of ensuring the interoperability of the system in its most stressful mode. WHY DO SOME DATA CENTER OPERATORS NEGLECT LEVEL 5 COMMISSIONING? • Level 5 – Also known as the "integration As we discussed above, sometimes this final level of commissioning is skipped out of confusion or in the haste to complete the process quickly running into T2O (Transition to Operation). But for many data center operators not performing Level 5 commissioning is not so much a conscious decision, but rather a fundamental design limitation of their facility that prohibits them from doing so. Since the testing protocol that defines Level 5 commissioning necessitates that it cannot be performed in a "live" environment (one with live servers), the method and architecture used by a provider to build-out a facility serves as the determining factor in their ability to conduct this final critical phase of testing. • How do the back-up systems perform in the event of a dropped utility line at full load? • How do the redundant units respond when an air handler at full load fails? • Does the facility's power architecture switch over upon the failure of a UPS at full load? The vast majority of today's data center operators use what is usually described as a "phased" design and build-out methodology across a shared system in the development of their facilities. In this structure, the entire facility is supported by one or more common backplane of components including its power and/or cooling elements. As a result, all components that are selected to support the facility must be sized to support the entire floor space regardless of the number of customers it houses. Since workloads are typically gathered incrementally rather than all at once, this means that the entire space cannot ever be tested at its maximum load without interrupting critical operations. For example, a provider deploying eight (8) diesel relay UPS' in an Most companies "factory" test their data centers at Level 4. But this cannot be the end of the testing process. The module, like the engine in our airplane example, still has interdependencies. For example, a parallel generators system that is not tested with every engine connected at full load and fault conditions is, quite simply, not sufficiently tested for data center use. phase", Level 5 commissioning is the most important component of the commissioning process. In this phase, every aspect of the data center is tested while it is running at its maximum capacity. In other words, every component and system of the facility must prove its ability to perform when the data center is operating in its most stressful environment. During Level 5 commissioning all failure modes are tested and resiliency is validated, including scenarios such as: 14 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL N+1 catcher configuration cannot install three (3) units in the first phase and still conduct true Level 5 commissioning as all of the remaining units (numbers 4-8) have yet to be deployed. The only other option would be to install those 4-8 units, run the commissioning and then remove them until they are needed. Or as another example, double the IT load at a later date in the same data room. There is no way to test IST with live servers. Thus, customers operate in an environment in which the ability of the facility's systems to perform in the event of component failure is unknown until it actually happens. This is the point where commissioning becomes a resiliency issue, therefore designing with commissioning in mind is crucial. SUMMARY The importance of the applications housed within corporate data centers portfolios only continues to grow. This escalating level of mission criticality (business or C4ISR) has only amplified the need for data center operators to ensure that their facilities can deliver the level of operational reliability that their customers demand. Despite the fact that all operators perform some level of commissioning, only by completing the integration phase (Level 5) can they ensure that all of their site's systems will perform as required under the maximum load. Unfortunately, the current trend with modular operators or "phased" data centers precludes the ability to perform Level 5 commissioning. Otherwise, when that next module or phase goes live, a failure scenario makes the same request as Dirty Harry: "Go ahead, make my day". Customers that fail to insist on a Level 5 commissioned data center are recklessly adding an unacceptable level of risk to their operations. n About the Authors: Chris Crosby is a recognized visionary and leader in the datacenter space, founder and CEO of Compass Datacenters. Chris has over 20 years of technology experience and over 10 years of real estate and investment experience. Kfir Godrich is a Managing Partner with Godrich Consulting LLC, a boutique consulting firm providing dedicated advice around business strategy through technology research and implementation across multiple industries globally. www.datacenterjournal.com